Just Such An Emergency

By Ted Millar

The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power
when they arrive. —Seneca 

What if this bridge collapses?
I guess I'll have to figure out
some Houdini-esque way of escaping
the car and swimming to shore.

And if while slicing through the river
that tugboat over there happens 
to chug on by without so much as
a courtesy horn, at least I can
take comfort in the knowledge 
it didn't pull me under.

And when I emerge heavy and sticky
with whatever gives the water 
its lavender sheen, I'll tell 
whomever's been standing in the 

parking lot filming me on his phone
I had everything under control
the whole time, no sweat, because
I've studied Seneca, and like any
dutiful stoic, I always anticipate
the other shoe is going to drop.

And when he asks me who Seneca is,
I'd be all ready to whip out my highlighted, 
dog-eared copy if it weren't still 
in the car sinking in silt.

He'd probably just toss it 
in the water anyway.

Ted Millar teaches English at Mahopac High School.  His work has appeared in Fleas on the Dog, Better Than Starbucks, Straight Forward Poetry, Reflecting Pool: Poets and the Creative Process (Codhill Press, 2018), Crossways, Caesura, Circle Show, The Broke Bohemian, The Voices Project, Third Wednesday, Tiny Poetry: Macropoetics, Scintilla, GFT Press, Inklette, The Grief Diaries, Cactus Heart, Aji, Wordpool Press, The Artistic Muse, Chronogram, Brickplight and Inkwell.  He was among 65 poets to have work accepted for the 2018 Arts Mid-Hudson exhibit Artists Respond to Poetry. He also serves as an editor for Short Edition.  In addition to writing poetry, he is also a frequent contributor to Liberal America, Liberal Nation Rising, and OpEd News, as well as hosting The Left Place podcast, available on Breaker, Google, Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Apple podcasts, and Spotify. He lives in the heart of apple and wine country in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife and two children.